Cover crops affect on soil organic matter fractions under no till system

The purpose of this research was to identify the soil organic matter (SOM) fractions changes in a crop rotation system under no-till system (NTS). This research was carried out from October 2010 to February 2014 in a Rhodic Hapludox. The experiment was set up in completely randomized blocks in a factorial design with eight cover crops and three soil depths (0-5, 5-10 and 10-20 cm) with four repetitions. Cover crops: fall-winter corn, intercropping fall-winter corn with Brachiaria ruziziensis, intercropping fall-winter corn with B. brizantha cv. Marandu, intercropping fall-winter corn with Crotalaria spectabilis, B. ruziziensis, B. brizantha cv. Marandu, Pennisetum glaucum L. and set-aside area. The results of SOM granulometric fractionation showed that 6.5% of the total organic carbon (TOC) stocks were in the particulate organic carbon (POC) fraction. The low values of POC observed in this research are associated with the weather condition of experimental site, which shows high temperature and moisture. In relation to the labile carbon (LC), the highest LC stock was observed in 0-5 cm depth, which differed from the 10-20 cm depth. The POC, LC and labile nitrogen (LN) were the SOM fractions that showed to be more sensitive to detect the changes promoted by the cover crops and soil depths in NTS, as well as the carbon management index (CMI). The intercropping fall-winter corn with B. brizantha cv. Marandu and B. ruziziensis were efficient in increasing the CMI in deeper depth (10-20 cm).